Sounds good to me! On a related note, I listed a few related sentences I found.

Most of the sources are blogs. I added them just in case! Not sure about anyone else but, I like to look these things up in general just to look at various things I could say and how I'd go about saying them. Anyways, can't hurt to share them I thought.

I want to go to sleep, but I can't turn my brain off. What should I do?
寝たいんだけど、脳をオフにすることができないのよね。どうすればい い? [Source].

Brain imaging such as CAT, PET and fMRI shows that even while asleep there aren't any areas of our brain that completely 'switch off'.
ＣＴ（コンピュータ断層撮影）やＰＥＴ（陽電子放出断層撮影法）やｆ ＭＲＩ（機能的磁気共鳴映像法）のような脳イメージングは、眠ってい る時ですら、
完全に「スイッチの切れる」領域は、脳のどこにもないことを示してい る。 [Source].

We think basically you watch television to turn your brain off, and you work on your computer when you want to turn your brain on.
あなたがテレビのスイッチをオンにするのはあなたが自分の脳のスイッ チをオフにしたいからだと思います。それに対してコンピュータで仕事 をするのは、
脳のスイッチをオンにしたいときではないでしょうか。[Source].

I wish I could turn my brain off when I go to bed. So that I don't have to think.
寝よう、と思った時に脳のスイッチをオフに出来ればいいのに。そした ら余計なことを考えないで眠れるのに。[Source].

Oh, sorry for not saying this earlier either: Thank you very much for the rep, Sapientia! xx

I was wondering, do any of you use Lang-8 at all? And if so, how do you learn from it?

This is what I do (although I may've mentioned this before, sorry!): I copy and paste the entry - with its corrections - and I write translations of what I wanted to say (and sometimes what I did say, after realising any nonsencial speech), then I translate the corrections to understand the changes. Of course, I may be flawed in my understanding but, I do find it really helps. And I also make a note of new vocabulary I've used in it, so I remember it (I do this for vocab. that I always re-forget a million times too). If that doesn't make sense, here's an example:

日本語を一年半間勉強してきた後でも、まだ私は２歳児の語彙力があり ます。
> 日本語を一年半勉強してきたけど、まだ私は２歳児の語彙力しかありません。
Even after a year and a half of studying Japanese, I've still got the vocabulary of a two-year-old.
Correction added: Although I've been studying Japanese for a year and a half, I've still only got the vocabulary of a two-year-old.
語彙力 (ごいりょく ) = (the extent of) one's vocabulary

I'm currently using this process with my latest Lang-8 entry, which is taking my ages 'cause the mistakes are neverending. That example is from my previous one. I thought it worth mentioning in case I hadn't spoken about it before, particularly if this method can help other people too.

But I want to know what other people do! So any insight would be lovely, x.

(Original post by Jazmine)
Oh, sorry for not saying this earlier either: Thank you very much for the rep, Sapientia! xx

I was wondering, do any of you use Lang-8 at all? And if so, how do you learn from it?

This is what I do (although I may've mentioned this before, sorry!): I copy and paste the entry - with its corrections - and I write translations of what I wanted to say (and sometimes what I did say, after realising any nonsencial speech), then I translate the corrections to understand the changes. Of course, I may be flawed in my understanding but, I do find it really helps. And I also make a note of new vocabulary I've used in it, so I remember it (I do this for vocab. that I always re-forget a million times too). If that doesn't make sense, here's an example:

日本語を一年半間勉強してきた後でも、まだ私は２歳児の語彙力があり ます。
> 日本語を一年半勉強してきたけど、まだ私は２歳児の語彙力しかありません。
Even after a year and a half of studying Japanese, I've still got the vocabulary of a two-year-old.
Correction added: Although I've been studying Japanese for a year and a half, I've still only got the vocabulary of a two-year-old.
語彙力 (ごいりょく ) = (the extent of) one's vocabulary

I'm currently using this process with my latest Lang-8 entry, which is taking my ages 'cause the mistakes are neverending. That example is from my previous one. I thought it worth mentioning in case I hadn't spoken about it before, particularly if this method can help other people too.

But I want to know what other people do! So any insight would be lovely, x.

That's my pleasure.

I've never used Lang-8 myself. It's basically a website where you write something and natives come along to correct it, isn't it? I will definitely check it out. The only thing that really puts me off is that I don't feel very keen on saying things that are wrong. If I don't know how to say something, I try and find natural sentences that are close enough so that I can confidently express myself naturally, or I just find a different way to say it, or just leave it and know that one day I will be able to say it.

How quickly do you find that you get a response or a correction to what you post?

Do you use an SRS? What else do you use in your Japanese studies? I've just found mangahelper.com which has raw manga, if you're interested. Seems quite good as it's obviously bursting with natural dialogue to copy.

(Original post by Sapientia)
I've never used Lang-8 myself. It's basically a website where you write something and natives come along to correct it, isn't it?

How quickly do you find that you get a response or a correction to what you post?

Do you use an SRS? What else do you use in your Japanese studies?

It is! I find that I get responses very quickly, actually. Within the day/couple of hours. I find that people also correct you if you correct them sometimes (if you're learning their native language). I used to do tons of corrections per day I spent on there but I got lazy after a while, unfortunately. By doing this however, if people really like your corrections, they ask to add you and if they speak the language you're learning, of course that's a plus for you 'cause they'll be more likely to correct you whenever you make a new entry.

Bad things about Lang-8:

> It's not really suitable for beginners.
This is because often they will not speak to you in English, all corrections will be Japanese and any comments or explanations will also be in Japanese most probably. If you can't understand what they're saying, it's a bit annoying. Having said that, I was a beginner when I joined and I'm still a beginner and I think I do just fine. I also set up a Japanese blog and spoke to people on that site within two months of study, bloody difficult but I think you get used to it quickly. Same goes for Lang-8.

> It's not 100% reliable - of course.
I have seen some English speakers give really poor corrections before. Hell, I saw someone who's English was so appauling that I truly doubted whether they were truly native to English, as they claimed. Either way, they should've been banned from giving corrections =P. So, no doubt there are some Japanese people on there correcting poorly sometimes also, so.. you have to watch out for that. I also think that giving corrections is so difficult anyways, sometimes you don't even know what people are trying to say and you get caught up in trying to modify their speech when, really, you should be giving completely alternative sentences to what they're saying that still hold the same feeling. So, even for those who are very well-spoken, it can be challenging to write good corrections. I like to think that most corrections are decent though.

I'm the opposite, I want to express things in the same way I express them in English (ha ha). I have been trying to break things down like that too though, use smaller more simpler sentences, etc, in order to get across what I want to say as much as I can with what I know. Most of the time, I think of what I want to say in English and then I write it down in whatever way I can then look up how to say it, or how to say something similar to it. Comparing it to what I said, seeing if my grammar is flawed, finding out common ways of saying what I want to say, etc. I do this by looking up various things people say, e.g. as in that post I did full of quotes - that's actually what I do daily. I'm absolutely poor at explainings things though, so I'm sorry if I'm not making any sense.

I absolutely hate making mistakes 'cause I have a huge sense of pride. Unfortunately, I do not possess pride positively, I feel pride in a negative sense. It means that I get embarrassed easily, have a fear of failure and mistakes kill my soul, etc. But you know, you just have to suck it up and if you say something that's wrong, you'll be told and you'll hopefully remember it for next time. I find that learning a language is possibly the most humiliating thing I've ever done, I sometimes take ages to respond to someone who's corrected me (native or learner) because I feel so ashamed of myself and it takes me a while to gather the courage to face up to it. I truly did avoid interacting with anyone who was learning Japanese or was Japanese at one point because I just did not want my errors to be noticed. However, I'm over it.. I'll never get exceptionally better that way. =)

Ha ha, so although it's hopefully not so much of an issue for you evenso, get stuck in, do your best and if you're wrong, no worries, eh?

I read Yotsuba&! regarding manga. I'm not really a comic-person for some reason, but I do find it to be really easy to read and really good. There is furigana and Yotsuba (a little girl) always speaks in kana. It's pretty sweet, although I think it's popular so maybe you already know about it?

I also have all three Japanese games on the DS called Kodomo no Tame no Yomikikase: Ehon de Asobou. Per game, you have three stories. The text is all in kana and you can listen to a woman reading it or not (accompanied by some images). It also helps teach English, so if you click to read the stories in English, you can hear an American woman reading the story accompanied by Japanese text, if you like. I quite like that also.

As far as what I use in my Japanese studies... Sadly enough, I would now say I do not study Japanese. Ha ha, I can't recall the last time I picked up any of my Japanese learning books. All I currently do is browse online dictionaries and random websites (incl. Japanese blogs, Japanese grammar sites, etc). Hm, so I am pretty useless regarding helping anyone with their studies. =( I don't use an SRS, no. Flashcards never much suited me, I'm afraid.